NEW DELHI: Indian bowler Yuzvendra Chahal says he was dangled from a 15th-floor hotel balcony by a heavily drunk fellow player during the Indian Premier League in 2013.

The incident happened during a get-together when the leg-spinner, who has played 61 One-day Internationals for India, was a part of the Mumbai Indians franchise.

Chahal previously alleged that he was also bullied by Mumbai team-mates in 2011 when he was an up-and-coming talent.

“We had a match in Bengaluru and there was a get-together after that,” Chahal, now 31, said in a video posted Thursday by his current IPL team Rajasthan Royals.

“So there was a player who was very drunk — and I won’t take his name — he was very drunk, he just called me aside and he took me outside and he hung me out from the balcony.”

“I was holding on to him, with my arms around his neck. If I had lost my grip, we were on the 15th floor... had there been a small mistake there, I would have fallen down.”

Chahal said he was saved by people who rushed to his rescue.

“Suddenly many people who were there came and handled the situation. I kind of fainted and they gave me water. Then I realised how responsible we need to be when we go anywhere,” said the bowler, who was chatting in the video to fellow spinner Ravichandran Ashwin about tricky off-field situations.

Former India all-rounder and coach Ravi Shastri said the incident must not be taken lightly, and called for players to be banned from the game if they commit such an offence.

Shastri, who was in charge of the men’s national team from mid-2017 until last year’s T20 World Cup, said the incident was “not acceptable”.

“Someone’s life is at risk, some people might think it is funny but for me, it is not funny at all,” he said during ESPNcricinfo’s ‘T20 Time Out’ programme. “It shows the person who is trying to do it is in a state ... which is not appropriate.

“If such an incident happens today, [give] a life ban for that person involved and send that person to a rehab centre as quickly as possible. Let him not come near a cricket field again.”

The IPL and the Mumbai Indians franchise did not respond to requests for comment.

Former India opening batter Virender Sehwag asked Chahal to reveal the name of the player, saying in a tweet that it was “important to know what happened and what action was taken considering the seriousness of this”.

Chahal had alleged in a podcast earlier this year that, in another incident, his then Mumbai team-mates James Franklin and Andrew Symonds tied him up, taped his mouth, forgot about him and left him in a room for an entire night after a party in 2011.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2022